Louise (f ): Hallo, and you are all very welcome to Saturday night with Louise Kings and The Sandman, East Coast FM, political, spiritual, cultural and world events show. I am your host, Louise Kings.

Sandman (m ): And I am the Sandman.

Louise (f ): And tonight we are extremely honored again to interview Grand Supreme Master Ching Hai. Now the last time we spoke to her we were discussing the adverse effects of meat eating to both our planet and ourselves, and some of the ways that we could help our planet. And tonight she joins us to talk about our oceans and the seas.

And some of the things that we are going to be discussing will be the coral reefs, contaminates in our fish and some of the effects of overfishing. So we are asking you to be interactive with us tonight; let us know your thoughts, your comments or your questions.

Louise Kings(f): We are very honored to talk to Supreme Master Ching Hai, which we do have online live. Hallo, good evening.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Good evening, Louise and the Sandman. Hi.

Louise (f): Hallo, Supreme Master.

Sandman (m): Hallo.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : How are you?

Louise (f): It's great to talk to you again.

Sandman (m): You're very, very welcomed to the show and we're sitting here with bated breath with all your new knowledge or old knowledge about saving the Earth.

Louise (f): Well, we're going to give her a little bit of feedback from the first show that we did three months ago.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Wow!

Sandman (m): Let me tell you that since I spoke to you last, I am have gone completely vegetarian.

Sandman (m): And so much so that I cannot even go near a supermarket that has any meat displayed at all. And it has made such a great change in my life. I do believe it was probably something that was inside, somewhere inside my psyche or somewhere inside that I just newly discovered. And now, I am just completely against meat eating.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Wow!

Louise (f): Well, we’ve had plenty of other feedback, Supreme Master, that's been really, really heartwarming from young children that we've spoken to since the show, where they've been talking to their parents about becoming vegetarian or becoming vegetarians. So much so, it's even gone as far as going into some schools where they've held some vegetarian cooking days and things.

So it's just been fantastic. And aside from that, other people have said they've cut right back down on meat and that they plan to kind of phase it out. For us, It was easy for us to cut it out. But in the 3 months since we've spoken to you, I mean the results that we've seen in ourselves has, not just from a physical point of view, but also I think from spiritual point of view, has been fantastic. And certainly something I would highly recommend to all. (Wow!)

Sandman (m): Well, long may it continue.

Louise(f): Well, I have to say, Supreme Master, my hair is in better condition since I have gone become vegetarian.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Truly?

Louise(f): Definitely and my nails.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Wow!

Louise(f): Hair and nails and skin, definitely ahuge improvement.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Yes, beautiful you are. You’re beautiful all together, you two.

Louise (f): Supreme Master, Ireland, as you know, is surrounded by the sea so I think it's appropriate to start off by taking a look at the wonderful part of our ecosystem and the perilous state that it's in. We start off with the ocean dead zones. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have discovered 20 dead zones around the Irish coastline and 400 worldwide. If global dead zones were combined they would equal New Zealand in size. Scientists mainly blame fertilizer and other farm runoff, sewage
and fossil fuel burning. But Robert J. Diaz, Professor of the Marine Science of University of Gothenburg said that,"We could end up with no crabs, no shrimp and no fish.” How important is the sea to human survival?

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Well, it is as important as the forest to Earth and the water. According to research, 50% of our Earth’s oxygen is provided by microscopic sea plants, 50%. And now the dead zones in the oceans kept spreading and increasing around the globe. Some were even there for many years, but we have just found them recently. So, they cover at least like 95,000 square miles for the one that we have discovered, with more not yet discovered even.

The pollution from fertilizers, sewage and fossil burning fuel are to blame, according to scientists. But even cage farming for salmon also cause dead zones, as in the Big Glory Bay in New Zealand. They have discovered that it’s also been a dead zone because of the caging in salmon farming. So, the area has begun to recover after the salmon cages were removed, according to research and documented by Diaz and Rosenberg of Swedish Gothenburg University. We will provide you some websites for further info.
Right now, it's too much to read here. We'll send it to you.

Louise (f): Fantastic. Actually, it's a very interesting way of looking at it, that the sea is like our forest, our underwater forest. I've never really looked at it that way. But if we talk about like the coral reefs, Alex Rogers, from the Zoological Society of London writing in the Journal Science said that an astonishing 33% of the world's reef building corals face extinction, mainly because of overfishing and coastal development and pollution, with another 50% hanging in the balance. And also a report from the World Resources
Institute in 1998, suggested that 60% of the world's coral reefs are threatened by human activity. What would be the effects if the coral reefs disappeared and what can we do to prevent this from happening?

Supreme Master Ching Hai : What would be the effects? Whatever is created there are good for us. Now, the coral reefs are there for some reason. See? There are many factors that affect coral reefs, like coastal development, water pollution, changing sea water temperature because of global warming. So, global warming is the greatest threat as it causes coral bleaching, or when temperature gets too high, and the corals’ important symbiotic algae is lost and exposes their white skeleton, and that's the sign of death for the coral colony.

As they are sensitive to the environment, extremely slow in growing as well, some say that they grow only 30 centimeters in 1000 years, and they need special conditions to survive. Therefore, some scientists predict that most of the coral reefs could disappear in the near future if global warming increases. Scary, 10% lost just in the last four years alone. Coral reefs are just like the forest on land. They are the protectors of 100-plus countries’ coastlines against storm surges and hurricanes.

They are the protectors. And they are also the supporters of over 25% of all marine species. They are the medical treasure which is used in many medicines like antihistamines, antibiotics, treating for asthma, heart disease even, etc., etc. And plus more than 50% of new cancer drug research relies on marine organisms. So you see how important it is. And there are many more things that we have not discovered about the benefits of coral reef and marine life.

Louise (f): So, we really do need to do what we can to protect them?

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Yes. We have to stop global warming, that's what.

Louise (f): If we were to look at contaminates in fish, Supreme Master, dolphin meat sold in Japan has high levels of mercury, methylmercury, DDT and PCB's. One or more of these contaminates pollute almost all of the dolphin meat for sale in Japan, with one sample having more than 1,600 times the maximum permitted amount of mercury.

I can't believe that people are not being informed of the levels of mercury in fish on food packaging but as it's even been sold to pregnant women. Master Ching Hai, do you feel that government should do more to inform people of these issues?

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Yes, definitely. The European Union’s Food Safety Agency has warned pregnant women to limit swordfish and tuna intake due to their high mercury levels, which can cause brain damage in unborn babies. The United States Environmental Agency also issued a similar warning. It is estimated 1 in 8 American women of child-bearing age has dangerous levels of mercury in their blood.

Fifteen percent of babies in the United States in 2000, were exposed to fatally high levels of the mercury, according to research conducted by an international team of scientists in Japan in 1999.Dolphin meat is reported to be also even disguised often as whale meat and is mostly contaminated. More than 91% of dolphin and whale samples tested exceed one or two pollutants. Other research shows similar results that the dolphin meat are dangerous to mother and fetus. And if mother is breastfeeding the child after consuming dolphin meat, then the child also encounters danger.

Louise (f): Some new research as well, Supreme Master, is that the mercury levels can actually affect fertility too.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Some Japanese scientists, the one who were involved in this Japanese project, stated that these products should be taken off the shelves immediately. And Dr. Palombi of Harvard University gave the same advice to the Japanese government - that they should ban dolphin fishing and they should ban dolphin meat
selling in the market.

Louise (f): Speaking of fishing, Supreme Master, I think we’ll move on to the overfishing. As fishing fleets expanded through the late 1980s and as fish finding and harvesting technologies became more efficient, the world’s fishes have systematically gone after their catch at greater depths and in more remote waters. Over the past 50 years,

the number of large predatory fish in the oceans has dropped by a startling 90%. And according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, the 4 million vessels that are scouring the world waters are at, or exceeding, the sustainable yields of three-quarters of all oceanic fisheries. Master Ching Hai, if we keep on this path, there will be nothing left in the sea. How can we stop this nonsensical destruction of the only sea that we have?

Supreme Master Ching Hai : We have to stop it somehow. Just stop the fishing. The government has to forbid fishing because it’s too important to our survival to delay any further. Not only is there overfishing and depleting of the marine life, but there is also side killing. Like when the commercial long liners go fishing, they normally target swordfish but then they’re killing tens of thousands of sea turtles, by the way, and hundreds of thousands of sea birds and millions of sharks every year.

This accidental killing is about 25% extra of all global catch. In the New York Times on November 2006, there is an article that says: “Global collapse of fish species.” will each,” we read, like, Experts predicted that, “in its present pace more and more species will vanish and the global marine ecosystem will collapse, .” possibly in mid-century. There is more to this research. Please refer to the websites that we will provide for further reference. To stop this destructive practice of fishing, the solution is vegetarian diet, no fishy stuff in our meals. The sea offers us plenty of better food choices; the wide varieties of super healthy and nutritious sea plants. We can even live on it forever. We must protect a living and healthy sea, as it relates to our living and healthy self. I think we cannot live without the sea. Summer, imagine you have no beach to go, just to think about that.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : If the sea is polluted and dead in some way, where would you go?

Louise (f): It’s so true. Supreme Master Ching Hai, as recent converts, both myself and the Sandman, we would like to talk a little about health and the vegetarian diet as you just mentioned.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : You mean in the nutritional value?

Louise (f): Yes.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : You see, we can always be assured that this peaceful diet is more than sound and for all around healthy and intelligent life. Evidences are plenty from all aspects: physically, mentally, emotionally. Here is some excerpt from the position paper on vegetarian diet published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, June 2003. It is said: “It is the position of the American Dietetic Association and dieticians of Canada that appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.

Vegetarians have lower body mass indices (BMI) than non-vegetarians, lower rate of death from heart disease, lower blood cholesterol, lower blood pressure, lower rate of hypertension, as well Type 2 diabetes, prostate and colon cancer even.

Vegetarian diet offers lots of nutritional benefit including high levels of fiber, magnesium, potassium, folates and antioxidants.” etc., etc. “Vegetarian or vegan diet can meet all current recommendations of vital nutrients. Thus, the well-planned vegetarian and vegan diet are appropriate for all stages of life, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence.” We will give you some websites for further detailed information concerning this question.

Louise (f): Excellent! We will post that up on our own website for listeners to check out. That kind of leads on to the next question, Supreme Master, that many people are concerned they won’t be able to meet their nutritional needs on a plant-based vegan or vegetarian diet. How could we be assured that a vegetarian or vegan diet is sound?

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Yes, I think we have covered that, by the way. Anyway, nowadays, we can always go onto all kind of nutritional websites or medical websites in order to find out more details and more convincing evidences about the fantastic, healthy and nutritious vegetarian diet. There is no more doubt nowadays, we can always verify with all kinds of experts and all kinds of scientific evidences all point out that vegetarian diet is the best, the one and only that should be for human, at least for human.

Louise (f): Supreme Master if we look at obesity, experts are predicting that Ireland is on the verge of an obesity crisis. Since 1990, the rate of obesity in women increased from 13% to 16% and men increased from 8% to 20%. Obesity in related issues cost the US economy an estimated US$100 billion per year and Northern Ireland US$500 million per year. How effective is a vegan diet in addressing obesity?

Supreme Master Ching Hai : How effective? Look at me and look at many of our Association members. They all look very nicely proportionate and healthy. And none of us are, are very overweight at all. Even the one who just began vegetarian diet not long ago, they begin to balance their weight very soon afterwards. And according to the American Dietetic Association and dieticians of Canada again, they reviewed 20 scientific studies concerning vegetarian and vegan diet and concluded that vegetarians were much less likely to suffer obesity than a meat eater. And through research and experiments, some of the doctors, like Dr. Dean Ornish, M.D, and Dr. Fuhrman, confirmed that a well-balanced, plant-based diets are highly successful in taking weight off, and even keep it off! Because sometimes people go on diet, they take some weight off and later, they gain more because they eat more.

Louise (f): I’ve been there, Supreme Master.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : The psychological pressure on the people who go on diet to take weight off is tremendous. I understand that. They cannot do it; it’s against their nature. So, the vegetarian diet, you can just eat and then you just take your weight off naturally. And they say that it’s even better than gastric bypass surgery, and also improves health and helps prolong youthful look and vigor. So you can refer to the books like, “The Ornish Diet,” “Eat to Live,” and “Eat for Health” for more details. And we will provide you, of course, some more websites for your listeners.

Louise (f): Wonderful, thank you. Supreme Master Television has broadcast a few scientists who have stated that if we reduce our methane emissions by eliminating meat and dairy, that it would bring us much faster cooling of the planet than by reducing CO2 emissions.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Yes. Right.

Louise (f): You aired an interview with Professor Kirk Smith at the University of California at Berkeley in the US, who said, “Reducing methane would buy us critical time in the fight against climate change.” He also said that livestock were the greatest human-caused source of methane, and suggested governments tax meat to reduce consumption. Supreme Master, can you please help us to understand how reducing human-caused methane will cool the planet faster than reducing CO2?

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Scientifically speaking, methane ends its effect much faster than CO2. And its warming potential is greater than CO2. So, if the methane is gone out, then we cool the planet quicker. And the methane dissipates out of the atmosphere in 9 to 15 years, but the CO2 lingers for an estimated range of 40 to 200 years. So, because methane goes out faster and heats up the climate more, so if it goes out, then the Earth cools more and quicker compared to CO2 effect.

So some the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientists say that eliminating livestock farming would be the fastest way to bring down methane and cool the planet, First, thus buying critical time in the fight against global warming, as they said. So, in the interview with the Supreme Master TV, Dr. Kirk Smith stated that the CO2 emissions could still be heating the planet a thousand years after they are emitted. Can you imagine? So, if we want to see the cooling of our planet in the next one or two decades, it’s more effective to reduce methane first. And because the greatest source of methane on the planet is from livestock, so to be a vegan is the fastest way to reduce methane, thus bring cooling to the planet, successfully and fast.

Louise (f): We’re also going to talk, Supreme Master, about how cancer can be caused by meat. Leading researcher Dr. Ajit Varki, M.D., at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, again, in the United States, has shown that the consumption of meat and milk products could contribute to the increased risk of cancerous tumours.

Having said this, there are many that feel unclear regarding how much animal protein or calcium from milk they need for a proper balanced diet. So these foods, most people think of as being necessary to keep us healthy, are actually foods that are making us ill!

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Yes ma’am. Sadly, meat and milk are supposed to be good for us, but they’re not. Their consumption is responsible for so many fatalities. Here are some examples: like heart disease, over 17 million lives lost globally each year; cause of cardiovascular disease, at least US$1 trillion US dollars each year. And cancer, one million new colon cancer patients each year at least, and more than 600,000 colon cancer related deaths each year.

It costs the United States US$6.5 billion each year. Millions are newly diagnosed with other meat-related cancers every year. And diabetes, 246 million people affected worldwide each year, with an estimated US$174 billion in treatment annually. Harvard University found that young women who eat meat regularly increase the risk of breast cancer; the more red meat consumption, the greater the risk. We will give you a website for more information so you can read to your listeners.

Louise (f): That’s wonderful, thank you very much. Just to mention also, Supreme Master, that about six months ago, I had a health check. And in the last three months, I’ve been totally vegetarian, and actually had a health check today. I didn’t have it planned, but it’s just the way it worked out. And let’s just say, my doctor was a little bit baffled at my recovery rate – a lot of mine has to do with internal organs – quite shocked and asked me what was I taking, and it wasn’t what I was taking, as what I took out of my diet that made a huge difference.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Oh, I am proud of you!

Louise (f): Thank you.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Congratulations!

Louise (f): Thank you! If we talk a little about eating locally versus eating vegan products to reduce emissions, Ireland’s food minister, Trevor Sargent, has called upon hoppers to buy locally grown produce to reduce emissions and support our local communities, while other groups have also pointed out that the meat, including fish, eggs and dairy products are also locally grown produce. Supreme Master, how effective is it to eat a vegan or vegetarian diet relative to locally grown and raised produce and animal products to lower emissions?

Supreme Master Ching Hai : According to some reference I have at hand, a study by Carnegie Mellon University, in USA, only 11% of emissions come from transportation. And animal products stand for 58% of the emissions in the American diet. So by being going vegan, even one day a week, the emissions saved would be more than eating locally all year long. Of course, we have some more websites for you to give to your listeners. Because I’m afraid we don’t have enough time so I don’t read all that.

Louise (f): We’ll have to have you back on Supreme Master.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Yes.

Louise (f): Do you think though, Supreme Master, that would most of our children have been vegetarians if we hadn’t encouraged them to eat meat?

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Of course! Have you seen many kids who keep spitting out their food while you’re feeding them? Or when the mother is feeding them, they keep spitting it out? Definitely if we had not encouraged them to have meat, then they would have never gone on to that diet. It is all a question of habit. Right from the beginning of the fetus’ life the baby has already tried to help the mother to kick out all the toxic elements from her body, hence the morning sickness, etc. Even when the mother-to-be just happens to smell the odor of fish, according to many mothers, the odor of fish she normally had no reaction before. Before the pregnancy, she would have no problem smelling it or eating it. But when she is pregnant, she begins to vomit,

Supreme Master Ching Hai : just to smell the fish. So And you witness the infants tries to spit out meaty stuff that is forced onto them. But then later they became habitually fed and forced to be accustomed to meat diet until adulthood. Because everybody told Mother that “meat is good, fish is good for the child.” So, for the love of the child, she still feeds them the meat diet. It’s a pity because for most of us, we have been forced into this unhealthy, unloving diet this way. All the children have been forced into this. So we have to change all this because we know now it’s no good.

Louise (f): I don’t have children, Supreme Master, but I have dogs and I have cats. And I think I spoke to you the last time about some of the dangers in the food, especially in animal products or animal pet food. Do you think that we could say the same for our pets as what you just mentioned for our children, that they don’t automatically need meat to grow or to survive?

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Of course, your pets don’t need meat to survive. Because even my pets, they are all vegetarian. So actually, a vegetarian diet is good not just for humans, but for all the animals.

Louise (f): I’m going to move on to vegetarianism. Recently, Supreme Master Television interviewed veterinarian and scientist, Andrew Knight. Andrew stated that, “Most of the diseases that our beloved pets, including cats and dogs, get come from the animal-based foods they are being fed. And that a vegan diet is the best diet to keep your pets ealthy.” He also stated that one survey found that 40% of human grade fish had bacterial counts of more than 500 million per grams, which was the definition of spoiled. And another 30% had bacterial counts in excess of 10 million per grams, which is the definition of rotten. This was human grade fish. The fish that goes into the commercial cat and dog food is obviously of a much worse quality. Master Ching Hai, I know you feed your pets a vegan diet that we just mentioned, but you would state that they’re healthy?

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Yes. Definitely! They’re very, very healthy. You can view them on the DVD called “The Dogs and Birds in My Life” to prove it. They’ve been for years now on a vegan diet. This DVD is a spontaneous recording of my pets. My assistants, they did record them spontaneously. Or you can see them in my books, “The Dogs in My Life” and “The Birds in My Life,” they are all vegan. And sometimes during my cooking show on Sunday, you can see them also running around and they are in their old age even, but you see them, they are very strong and healthy like a puppy. You also feed your dogs vegetarian diet, right? You know how it works.

Louise (f): I do now, Supreme Master, because I spoke to you before about my first dog who was my best friend. And unfortunately, she got cancer. That’s when I started doing my own research about meat and about the food and the quantity quality of food that I was giving her. I thought I was giving her the best, but it turned out I wasn’t. And the tumors that were growing, they were growing really, really aggressively. So through research, I started to realize it was linked to her foods. So, I drastically changed her diet.

I made it completely vegan, but I also treated her with various different herbs and other homegrown stuff and she went on to live a year longer than we were told that she was going to because we were able to sort of reduce the tumors, rather than increase them, with her food. It wasn’t just even reducing the tumor, but her quality of life, she made a dramatic recovery in some ways because she had terrible joint pain prior to this, leg pain, joint pains, and I saw a massive difference in that. So obviously, I don’t want to do the same to my next pet. So they’re all vegan.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Yes. It’s good. If your listeners would like more information to put their loving pets on a safe and healthy vegan diet, you can log on onto Andrew Knight’s website, like www.vegepets.info. And you can also download Andrew’s show from Supreme Master Television’s website, SupremeMasterTV.com. And there are many other websites concerning vegetarian diet, vegan diet for pets. We are very safe if we give them vegan diet. Your pets will be healthy, strong and problem-free. Of course, they won’t live forever, no one does, but at least as long as they live, they are pain-free, healthy, vigorous, happy, lively. I can tell you that from my own experience because all my pets are vegan.

Louise (f): Wonderful. And we’re going to load up links to those websites to our own because I think that’s incredibly interesting and important. Supreme Master, we move on to environmental refugees. A recent report by the aid agency, Tearfund, estimated there are currently 25 million environmental refugees, which is more than the 22 million officially recognized political and economic refugees.

And according to Dr. Janos Bogardi, Director of the Institute for Environment and Human Security at the United Nations University in Bonn (Germany), environmental deterioration currently displaces up to 10 million people per year. And there are expected to be 50 million environmental refugees by 2010. However, international conventions do not recognize environmental refugees, as such they do not have the same rights to financial and material support. What can we do to help the environmental refugees?

Supreme Master Ching Hai : What can we do? They are refugees, definitely. Because if we don’t have global warming, then no one would be a climate refugee, would they? So, no one would like to be a refugee, in this case. So now, first we can help them to get back on their feet, the one who has means and power. We must consider the refugees’ status, legally, because they are refugees by all means.

And by stopping global warming, we can help reduce this refugees issue. I ask everyone from the governments to the citizens to please imagine if that were yourself in the refugee’s situation, experiencing all these troubles, - insecurities, hunger, lacking all comfort, humiliation, undignified situation, uncertain of the morrows of your future and the future of your helpless children. Just imagine it. Then try to solve this tragedy by helping in whatever way we can. And above all, and most urgently of all, be veg, go green to save the planet, to prevent such trauma and to build a bright future for the world, for our co-citizens. Please see the following websites that I provide for the concerned information.

Louise (f): It seems quite clear with the FAO (UN Food and Agricultural Organization) Livestock’s Long Shadow report that humankind can no longer continue its present ourse with the consumption of animal products. The facts are there for us all to see. How can people get to see and research the findings of the FAO? Do the general public have direct access to this information?

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Yes, we can. We can go to FAO.org and also SupremeMasterTV.com, and I’m sure that there are many more, to download the reports. We will provide all other the websites also for you. The FAO also estimates that an annual funding increase of US$24 billion to ease the world hunger will be repaid fivefold in increased productivities in income in return. And according to UNICEF, every 2.3 seconds a child dies from malnutrition, while 90% of the world’s soy and 50% of the world’s grain and 85% of the world’s corn are fed to livestock. And they keep breeding more and more. 25,000 people are killed by hunger every day, more than war and AIDS and all the diseases combined. Of course, we will give you more websites for detailed information.

Louise (f): Wonderful.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : It’s very sad. It’s very sad, Madame, very sad! We have to change. We have to change this lifestyle of our world; we have to change, otherwise we’re not human beings, we have to have compassion for others

Louise (f): Supreme Master, we never have long enough to speak with you. But just quickly, I’m just going to move to bees. In order for us to have fruits and vegetables, the plants, crops and flowers must be pollinated. Without bees, 80% of fruits and vegetables will disappear. Recently, the bee population has been reduced dramatically across the US and Europe. What do you think is the cause of this and what can we do to keep our bee population alive and healthy?

Supreme Master Ching Hai : By using organic farming and eating organic food, we will help the bee population. It’s reported that there are several causes for the bee’s decline, like genetically modified crops, chemical pesticides, and other spray substances for plants. Climate changes also affects the environmentally sensitive and fragile bees.

References can be found from the recent German journal Der Spiegel. Also, there’s a report by Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher, the scientist of Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific and the director of EcoNexus UK, or from the Soy Soil Association, UK. The pesticide neonicotinoids are banned by some EU (European Union) countries and may be banned throughout the EU (European Union) in the near future by vote, to protect public safety and wildlife from these dangerous chemicals, as Peter Melchett, director of the Soy Soil Association stated. I will provide more websites for you.

Louise (f): Thank you again. Over to you, Sandman.

Sandman (m): Yes, Supreme Master, and thank you for that. I just have a couple of questions here and we’re talking about the planet and we’re talking about the future and we’re talking about the serious conditions our world is in on so many levels. It seems that the vegan diet can solve most of the world’s eco and health issues for both humans and our fellow beings, but the Union of Concerned Scientists, some 1,700 of the world’s leading scientists, including the majority of the Nobel Laureates in Science, gave the following warning as far back as 1992.

And I know we spoke about this before but I’ll read it out again. These are world- renowned scientists and my question is really, why don’t we listen to these people? This is what they say and this is in 1992: “We, the undersigned, senior members of the world scientific community hereby warn all humanity of what lies ahead. A great change in our stewardship of the Earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided, and our global home on this planet is not to be irrevocably irretrievably mutilated.” Scientists issued this warning, with hope that their message reaches and affects many, many people. Master Ching Hai, what advice can you give to our listeners and to the world?

Supreme Master Ching Hai : Yes, follow the scientists and heed their warning. Why there are so many great thinkers and scientists, even Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, Edison and George Bernard Shaw, they are vegetarians because they are smart, yes? And so we have to heed the present scientists’ warning now. And I plead with all the world people, please heed their advice! Choose the life- and Earth-saving vegan diet. Do good deeds and help those in need. Protect animals and the environment. And pray that all will heed the scientists’ wise counsel and turn to benevolent life courses which will in turn offer a benevolent life on Earth. Thank you.

Sandman (m): Thank you.

Louise (f): Supreme Master, we just really want to say thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and your passion. We received the award for Shining World Compassion and we’re both very, very humbled and very, very honored to receive this. So thank you.

Sandman (m): Yes. We thank you greatly.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : You deserve it. You deserve more than that. I wish you the best in your endeavors and your health. I wish Ireland all the best, prosperity, peace and happiness to your people.

Louise (f): And to you. We hope to talk to you again soon, Supreme Master.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : So long for now. God bless you.

Louise (f): Thank you so much.

Sandman (m): God bless.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : God bless you. God bless you for your noble work. God bless you.

Louise Kings (f): I just want to say a very, very big thank you to Grand Supreme Master Ching Hai for talking to us. And it’s always a fascinating conversation that we have with her, but it’s never long enough. And tonight, even though she was live from another country, we were actually able to see her, which was truly, truly amazing.

But one of the things that we didn’t get to say, that I wanted to finish off, which was actually a bit of good news that we wanted to say to Master Ching Hai if she was still listening, is that the Irish Minister for Food and Horticulture, Trevor Sargent, sent a letter to all farmers in Ireland encouraging them to go organic, and informing them of the benefits of going organic.

He let the farmers know of the different organic colleges available and of the EU (European Union) and Irish government grants open to farmers. So hopefully that will move on to very, very positive things.